Glitched
by Chai-Emlee
Summary: Jaune didn't know what god he angered in his past life, but he didn't think he deserved this. No one deserved this. Reality was broken beyond repair and control was fast slipping out of his fingers. It was all he could do to keep sane, really. [Due to corrupted data, the male avatar is not available. Continue using the female avatar?] Videogame!Genderbend!Jaune.
1. New Game

**Chapter Title:** New Game

 **Chapter Length:** 7, 130 words

 **First Published:** 09 December 2016

 **Edited:** 05 May 2018

* * *

Semblances were a unique attribute that only those with an unlocked aura could posses. These amazing, god-like powers were as varied and unique as the millions of people who had the potential to use them. Much time, money, and effort has been dedicated to the research on semblances and yet the people of Remnant still could not fully explain them.

Many theories had risen and have been disproved by the scientific community over the many years. There is, however, a widely accepted theory that has survived many criticisms against it. This theory postulated that semblances surfaced due to an intensely great trauma to the user's aura. Once the user is placed under a highly stressful situation to the point where their aura could no longer protect them, their aura would mutate and a semblance would manifest. There have been many documented cases of aura users unlocking their semblances due to intense emotional and/or mental distress that supported this theory. There have been many records of unethical experiments conducted prior to the Great War and the formation of the kingdoms that add evidence supporting this theory.

A well documented and common type of semblance involved enhancing the user's body beyond that of the usual aura enhancements. Some semblances granted greatly increased defense, speed or healing rate. The prevalence of this type of semblance could be attributed to the most common type of psychological distress that those with aura, which were generally Hunters, experienced-the fear of death in the midst of battle. This type of semblance surfaced to address the most immediate threat to the user's survival in the most straightforward way: physical enhancements.

However, there are still many mysteries that surround semblances. Some semblances seem to be passed down in certain families although no genetic component of the power has been discovered as of yet. There have also been theories on how personality and semblances could be related, something about the psyche of the person affecting how the semblance manifested itself. Semblances have always been hard to predict and understanding them is still far from people's reach.

Case in point, Jaune Arc's semblance absolutely did not make sense if you considered the world's widely accepted notions. His semblance broke more preconceptions about aura than Grimm broke people's bones in a month. It just did not make sense.

* * *

Jaune Arc truly regretted going into the forest that night. At age fifteen, the young man made many embarrassing and questionable decisions in his short life, as most teenagers had a habit of doing. He had made many choices that he regretted but this truly took the cake, maybe even the whole buffet table.

Young Jaune Arc, aspiring Hunter and scion to the Ancient and Noble House of Arc, was going to die because of his stupid male pride.

" _I shouldn't have let Rouge goad me into leaving behind Crocea Mors! I am so-"_ his self-deprecating thought was cut off when a rabid Beowolf swiped at him with its massive claws.

"Damn it!" he squealed, barely dodging the swipe of certain death. A few strands of blond hair fell onto the forest floor. He was thankful that it was just a few measly strands and not his brain.

Surrounding the blond was an average sized pack of Beowolves numbering at roughly thirteen wolves strong. It was hard to get a clear estimate, however, while dodging for his life. It felt like he was fighting-no, getting mauled by-a pack of fifty. They just moved so damn fast and so frequently.

" _Stupid bet! Stupid, stupid me for accepting that damn bet when I'm barely trained as it is!"_ he continued his inner rant even as he screamed and grunted while dodging. His lack of attention cost him when a rather large Beowolf successfully injured him with an overhead strike. He let out a choked scream, his left arm now uselessly hanging by his side.

The young man bit his lip as tears freely flowed down his face. He didn't even have his aura unlocked yet, his father always putting it off for other things and none of his sisters particularly wanted to help him on that front. Why the hell did he think he could handle this?

He whimpered as he dodged yet another attack from the bloodthirsty Grimm. The action jostled his broken arm and the pain made him flinch. That in turn made him trip as he tried to dodge another strike, his jeans ripping against the harsh forest soil. His skin felt raw as it scraped against bits of rock and loose earth, compounding onto the pain he felt.

It was supposed to be a simple bet albeit a stupid one in hindsight. He was to spend the night in the woods and get out safely by daybreak. If he survived, he would get unlimited access to his older sister Rouge's bank account and booze supply. His sister even let him use her professional Hunter's pack along with Crocea Mors that his dad had allowed him to use recently.

He was piss drunk and extremely out of it when he denied her offers, claiming to be skilled enough to survive the night with just the clothes on his back. Equally as drunk and not in the right state of mind, Rouge Arc happily sent her barely trained and unequipped sibling off to the forests surrounding Vale. In the dead of the night. When Grimm activity was at its highest.

Jaune learned his lesson, alright. Never accept bets from Rouge, most especially when both of you had drunk enough to kill several cows. They really should have stopped after that tenth barrel.

The only hope he had of surviving this ordeal was if any of his more sensible family members noticed his absence and came looking for him. He initially tried calling for help, once the deadly situation finally sank in and sobered him up. Sadly, the Grimm were quick bastards and his Scroll was the first casualty that night. Now he just had to keep dodging and hope for the best.

He was totally screwed.

"AAAAAYYYIIIIIEEEE!" Jaune Arc screamed like a girl when he split painfully to avoid permanent damage upon his person. The offending Beowolf went soaring overhead, snarling as it missed its target. Drops of saliva rained down on the blond's head and almost blinded him. He whimpered yet again at his suffering.

He truly regretted many things that night. He regretted not taking training seriously. He regretted squandering all of his precious time for training on playing stupid video games. If he could survive tonight, he was totally getting rid of all of them. Even the limited edition Super Ninja Warrior 4: Maidens in Distress that he almost killed someone else for. He would happily burn War Against Mummies 2, though, no matter the situation. That tomb raiding game was totally not worth the money he spent on it.

If only his stats in his games would transfer over in real life, then he would totally be wiping the floor with these overgrown, bloodthirsty puppies.

"GAAH!"

A Beowolf struck his back and sent him flying through the trees in a poor parody of a spoiled child throwing their toy. He crashed painfully against the much stronger tree trunk and slid down the length of the tree once his momentum got killed. He truly despaired at that moment when he lost feeling in his legs. With how he hit the tree and most probably broke his spine somehow, he knew his time was up.

If only…

Jaune Arc, fifteen year old scion to the Ancient and Noble House of Arc, closed his eyes and waited for death.

* * *

 _Game Over_

 _You have died. Do you want to..._

 _Load from save file?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

 _Restart from beginning?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

These were the words that greeted Jaune when he opened his eyes again. He didn't know what to feel upon seeing the glowing screen in his face. He didn't know what to feel right now.

So he just blankly stared at the screens hoping they would go away and reality would reassert itself. When they didn't go away, he chose to ignore it in favor of seeing what exactly happened to him and where he was. He was pretty sure he was dead, floating words notwithstanding.

Looking down at himself, he winced at the gruesome sight. He didn't feel pain anymore-hell he didn't feel anything much, honestly-but his body looked like it should have hurt a whole lot. He was broken, injured, and bleeding in places he had never been before. He wanted to look away but he found it difficult to do so. He was morbidly fascinated at the dissonance between his fatal wounds and the numb feeling.

"Yep, I'm dead."

Once everything really sank in, he let out a hysterical laugh. Only a video game obsessed freak like him would view the afterlife in this manner. He was pretty sure the afterlife didn't look like a video game to everybody. Religion never really said anything about a video game-like afterlife. It was usually either brightly light and full of clouds and angels or dark and fiery and full of Grimm and other monsters. Some people have talked about seeing a glimpse of the afterlife when they were dying and they didn't describe it anything like a video game.

Well, he was really just assuming since he never died before.

With nothing else better to do, he tapped the load option for kicks. He was assuming that restarting would be reincarnation. What did loading mean?

 _Due to corrupted data, the male avatar is not available. Do you want to continue using the female avatar?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

He frowned. He was proud of his biological gender. As much as he loved his sisters and mother, he didn't want to join in the feminine bandwagon. He tapped _[No]_ with more force than necessary and it did absolutely nothing. His frown deepened and he tried tapping it with even more force. He was sure that if he had a real, working body right now, it would have broken with the force he used. Sadly, his murderous attempts at pressing _[No]_ yielded nothing but frustration on the blond's part.

He sighed, finally giving up and tapping the _[Yes]_ option. Why give him the illusion of a choice when he had no choice to speak of whatsoever? God must really have it in for him.

 _Loading…_

 _Loading…_

 _The game continues. Please enjoy and do not forget to save the game._

* * *

Jaune woke up yet again feeling slightly sore but not in any pain that suggested he fought against a pack of Beowolves and got out on the losing end.

Grumbling about the strangely realistic dream, the blond sat up and wondered what he was doing in the forest. Was his bet with Rouge really a thing? Did he pass out here after getting into the forest and promptly had that weird dream about the afterlife? Or was that really a thing and he revived from where he died?

Before he could think of anything else, a pack of Beowolves appeared in the clearing he was in. They were a strangely very familiar pack of Beowolves. He felt like pissing himself. Maybe he did, even if he won't confess to that in court.

What really threw him for a loop, though, were the floating texts above each Grimm. He actually had to blink multiple times just to make sure he was seeing things right. They never left even when he was starting to feel dizzy with all the blinking.

Certain details were varied but the information generally remained the same. The floating text boxes contained the Grimm's class, name and level. There was even a green bar underneath that textual information. It looked like a generic RPG interface and he was freaking out.

A Beowolf suddenly separated from the pack and met Jaune head on. The young man was still boggled at what he saw and what was happening, and so couldn't move out of the way in time.

 _Beowolf_

 _Bob_

 _Lv. 5_

 _1500/1500_

Before he could even make sense of what was happening, Bob the Beowolf had swiped at him. Jaune felt his hoodie tear open when he frantically tried dodging the fatal strike in the last second. The blond pitifully scampered away from his assailant before something else distracted him.

Looking down, the young man saw mounds of flesh on his chest when he knew they shouldn't be there. His mind boggled at the painful jiggling they did while he dodged for his life. Sadly, he was so freaked out by his very real breasts that he didn't notice another Beowolf coming in for another attack.

He only felt pain for a moment before he slowly blacked out. Before completely leaving the conscious realm, he saw a few more of those floating texts.

 _Critical hit!_

 _You are out of HP._

 _Game Over._

* * *

Jaune once again found himself in that strange plane of existence with the very same floating texts following his line of sight.

 _Game Over_

 _You have died. Do you want to..._

 _Load from save file?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

 _Restart from beginning?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

He didn't even care about that right now, however. He look down on himself and saw the same mass of flesh on his chest that he knew shouldn't be there. One didn't grow up with seven older sisters without being acquainted with breasts. No, what really freaked him out was what it was doing on him. His torn up hoodie and gory self didn't even register in his mind. He was solely focused on the anatomical anomaly on him.

He suddenly remembered picking the female avatar. Was this seriously a real thing? Did he really die, got reincarnated-or more accurately, revived-turned into a girl and died for the second time?

Just to be sure, the currently gender confused young man checked inside his pants.

…

Yep. He was truly a female now. One did not grow up with seven older sisters without knowing more about the female anatomy than most normal male teenagers of his age were comfortable with. Males his age only really cared about where they could put their junk in. He knew way more than he ever wanted to and had done quite a few runs to the stores to purchase tampons of all things.

He was so done. A pitiful half-sob escaped his lips. He couldn't even cry properly since was so confused. What was happening to him? Will he be forever a female? Did he really die twice? Did he really drink so much booze that his mind left him? He was pretty sure he didn't take in any drugs today. This wasn't some bad trip, was it? A bad trip was ten times better than this being reality.

He didn't know how long he just stood in that void in a catatonic shock. He wondered if this was the after life that sinful people experienced. Maybe religion got it wrong and hell was not about fire and Grimm but about being screwed around by Fate, God, or whoever ran this place. This was the true hell.

If he could relive his life, he would totally avoid underage drinking and illegal drug use from now on. He would totally avoid Junior's club from now on. He would stop listening to Rouge and would follow Viola's advice instead. The bespectacled second Arc daughter was more practical and sane compared to the messed up eldest.

As if reminding him of its existence, the glowing screens actually glowed even harsher and brighter, to the point of almost blinding the poor blonde. Jaune was totally willing to turn a new leaf and become a devout of whatever following this being who ran this place had if it allowed him to return to what was familiar and safe, to what was normal.

 _Restart from beginning?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

It was totally mocking him and his wishes. He was totally tempted to just tap it but he was wary. Would this God (or Goddess. He honestly didn't know. He wasn't religious at all.) really bring him back without any strings attached? If he could really restart from the beginning, maybe he could avoid this whole mess and get his old body back.

Nothing could go even more wrong right now, yeah? Unplanned sex change and the afterlife being messed up was totally the most messed up about this situation, yeah? Maybe if he chose this option, he could be reincarnated properly and he could stop making shitty mistakes.

Maybe the one who ran this place would give him mercy.

Gathering his courage, he tapped it. Nothing could be worse than what he had right now.

 _Error._

 _Due to corrupted data, this option is not available._

Jaune stared at the screen, highly unimpressed.

"Why give me this option in the first place, then?!"

He screamed to the blank heavens of this place. He purposely ignored how even more girly his voice sounded like. He was very sure the big boss of the afterlife was laughing at him right now.

* * *

With no other option available, he picked the same one he chose before. He was once again in the same clearing, miraculously healed from his fatal injuries, and his clothes resorted to how they were before.

He was still frustratingly female, however.

Before he could even make another step, the very same pack of Beowolves from before appeared again.

"Oh come on!" he whined at how shitty his circumstances have become.

This time, he decided to track the pack's movements more closely. Perhaps he could find an opening and make a run for it. He didn't want to keep experiencing his death by Beowolf over and over again.

They surrounded him but none of them pounced. Perhaps they could tell that he was more alert this time and were being cautious too. He honestly didn't know much about Grimm even if his father had been training him since he was a little kid. He was never really interested in training and reading books about Grimm even if he did think being a Hunter was cool.

He really wasted his resources by being a lazy bastard, huh?

He continued looking for a way to escape the pack of Beowolves. He saw that their levels ranged from 1 to 5, with Bob being the strongest. Was he the alpha of the pack?

The Grimm honestly had strangely underwhelming names like Jim, Henry, and Ashley. Shouldn't they have cool names like...Sauron or Kaguya or something?

He was brought out of his pointless stream of thought when a text box appeared in front of his face.

 _Due to completing a special action, a new skill has been created. You have obtained the skill_ _**Observe**_ _._

Jaune seriously didn't know what was going but he was winging it as he went along. He didn't even know if he was alive and his life had turned into a video game or if the afterlife was themed after a videogame. What he did know was that he didn't want to be mauled by Beowolves for a third time.

Deciding to follow his gut instinct, he winged it and used Observe. This was better than doing nothing when faced with another possible mauling. Since Bob was closest, the young man focused his attention on the larger Beowolf.

 _Beowolf_

 _Bob_

 _LV 5_

 _HP 1500/1500_

 _Bob the Beowolf may not have led his pack for long but he is smart and shrewd. A natural leader, he knows how to direct his pact for maximum effectivity._

The young, gender confused blonde gulped. **Observe** didn't give him much except that he was screwed. Hell, he didn't even know what his level was! How could he-

His brain farted. Why didn't he check his status the moment he had the chance? If everything had become video game-like, surely he had his own status screen too. He was so stupid!

Before he could even do anything about the situation, Bob let out a long series of barks that felt like a command to his troops. The Arc scion didn't last long. He was mauled by a group of Beowolves for the third time.

* * *

Jaune was seriously getting sick of feeling the pain of getting killed. He was also getting tired of feeling confused and out of his depth. He was also getting very, very tired of feeling the pain of his unsupported breasts jiggling every time he moved.

He may be a breast kind of guy but right now he wished he was more flat. He was currently a D cup by his estimates. Like seriously. What did he deserve to get this treatment?

Or more importantly, he wanted his old body back. He missed his nice, flat, male chest and male bits.

He sighed. The game over screen was still mocking him.

Remembering what led up to his third death, he tried summoning a status screen. All video games had a status screen for the player, right? Maybe then he could stop dying. When he couldn't see any convenient button to press to open his status screen, he decided that it might be voice activated instead and tried saying random names of status screens.

"Status! Um, Pause? Player Menu? User Interface?"

Calling out random names to what the status screen was normally called was not working. Jaune was seriously getting frustrated.

"What does a guy have to do to get some help around here?"

 _Due to corrupted data, the Help function is unavailable at this moment._

"Oh wow. Thanks so much," he grumbled sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. He immediately put his arms down when he felt the fleshy mounds. He seriously didn't like this at all and didn't want to be reminded of his new... _blessings_.

 _You are welcome. Would you like to continue the game?_

The young Arc was seriously contemplating murder right now. Even if it was a God/Goddess. He was totally gonna do it if he could.

* * *

Having no other option, Jaune chose to continue. Before the the Beowolves would come to attack him, he immediately started out calling names for his status screen or main menu. He thought that perhaps he couldn't access the menus in the game over screen.

"Player status! Character! Main Menu! Damn it, please work!"

The young man who was physically a woman could already hear the Beowolves approaching. He whimpered.

"Pause! STATUS SCREEN! OPTIONS!"

He could see Bob bursting out of the bushes. He screamed.

"GAME MENU!"

Miraculously, the color of the world suddenly washed out, as if there was a grey filter over everything. Bob the Beowolf was suspended in the air mid-jump, just a second later and he would really have been mauled for a fourth time.

Jaune let out a hysterical laugh and fell onto his bum. He was relieved at the timeliness of things and could only thank the patron god/goddess of video games.

...he also noticed how much more filled up his bottom was. He honest to goodness had a full, round bum.

He cried inside.

* * *

Once he had gathered his wits, Jaune decided to pursue his Game Menu while ignoring the snarling Beowolves suspended mid-motion around him.

 _ **[Game Menu]**_

 _Profile_

 _Skills_

 _Items_

 _Missions_

 _Characters_

The Game Menu looked like all the other text boxes he had encountered so far. The main box was a semi-translucent white and the text was a dark yellow, almost black really. He only now realized that there was a very familiar, pale yellow symbol on the lower right of each text box-it was his personal sigil of two yellow arcs. He approved of the simple theme even if he didn't approve of his circumstances.

He tapped Profile. He figured that this was about him and his status. He let out a sigh of relief when things went about as expected. Perhaps things were looking up? He could only hope.

 _ **[Profile]**_

 _Name: Jaune Arc_

 _Race: Human_

 _Title: Arc Scion_

 _Level: 1_

 _HP: 100/100_

 _AP: 10,000/10,000_

 _ATK: 5_

 _DEF: 5_

 _STR: 3_

 _VIT: 3_

 _INT: 1_

 _WIS: 1_

 _LUK: ?_

 _Jaune Arc is the youngest and only male child of Enciel Arc, a well-known Hunter and Lord of the most Ancient and Noble House of Arc. As such, Jaune has been given the title of heir. However, his decision to change his gender brings his heir status in danger. Troubling times are coming to Jaune Arc, the now Huntress in training._

Jaune groaned. Not only were his stats and level seriously low, his bio only reminded him of the trouble he was going to face when he survived this ordeal. He didn't even choose to have a sex change!

He wasn't blind. He knew that he was the favorite kid of his father Enciel. Hell, having seven female kids and an only son did say something about his father. Enciel Arc was a loving man, although a very strict traditionalist. In his eyes, only a male would continue the Noble House of Arc. He loved every one of his seven daughters but his only son held a special place in his heart.

Jaune knew his father spoiled him and he always took shameless advantage of it. Perhaps that's why his older sisters disliked him on occasion? Was this Rouge's revenge against him? As the eldest, she would have been the heiress if their father wasn't adamant for a male heir. Hell, he was pretty sure that his mother Celeste was tired of having children after she had the twins Cannelle and Chocolat. Enciel was a very persuasive man, however, suave bastard that he was.

Looking over the Profile again, Jaune noticed that he had more AP than HP. Way more AP.

"What the hell is a level 1 character doing with _ten thousand_ AP?! What the hell is this?!"

If AP was like MP in most games, was he leaning towards magic use? And what the hell was that luck stat? Was his luck so bad it didn't even register on the scale? Case in point, this situation.

Not understanding the strange values this game was giving him, he decided to put it off for now. His head was starting to hurt. He quickly moved onto the Skills submenu next, hoping for more useful information this time.

 _ **[Skills]**_

 _ **Combat Skills**_

 _Active Skills_

 _Observe (Lv. 1)_

 _Aura (Lv. 1)_

 _Passive Skills_

 _None_

 _ **Support Skills**_

 _None_

 _ **Life Skills**_

 _None_

 _ **Crafting Skills**_

 _None_

He knew he was only at level 1 and so he wasn't expecting much when he opened the submenu, but he still kind of hoped for something. It stung a bit to be so useless but he never really did train much even if he had his father's attention. The man loved him so much that he never really pushed him to try harder. Once he got out of this forest, he was totally gonna train his butt off. And he will get out of this forest no matter what Fate or whoever threw at him. He was determined!

Wanting to see more information, he tapped the skill he had recently unlocked. He thanked his luck stars that the menus seemed straightforward enough.

 _ **Observe**_ _(Lv. 1)_

 _Use your powers of perception to gather information from the world around you! The higher the level of this skill, the more information you can get from your target. Higher levels of this skill also raise INT. Exp: 2.18%_

It didn't sound like much at first but it was a very promising skill. The INT bonus was interesting too. Now even more curious, he turned to the only other skill he had.

 _ **Aura**_ _(Lv. 1)_

 _This skill is obtained when you have unlocked your sealed aura. Activating one's aura reduces damage taken by 75%. It also passively increases HP regeneration by 50%. It uses up 100 AP per second active. Increasing this skill's level reduces the AP cost, the amount of damage tanked and the amount of HP regenerated. Higher levels of this skill also raise WIS. Exp: 0%_

It took a while for Jaune to understand that he had unlocked his aura somehow. Perhaps when he died the first time? He knew that Hunters abused the hell out of aura and just reading this simple description made him understand that even better. If he leveled up this skill, he could take damage that would normally kill a civilian.

That thought made his brain stop for a moment.

...if he knew that he had unlocked his aura earlier, he could have used it to avoid the other deaths he had experienced.

He wanted to hurt something. Preferably the one who put him in this situation in the first place.

Reigning in his bitter feelings and anger with a lot of willpower that he never knew he had, the young blonde decided to compute how long he could keep his aura active with the amount of AP he currently had. Ten thousand AP was a lot so surely he could keep his aura active for a really long time, right?

If his calculations were corrected...he could keep it up for a measly 100 seconds? A minute and forty seconds?

He wanted to double check if it really was 100 AP _per second_. It was.

How was he going to survive that pack of Beowolves when he could only keep himself protected for only a few seconds? He didn't even have any offensive skills. Well, he could always run away, but could he outrun them in 100 seconds? Not likely.

Perhaps he could activate Aura in bursts only when he needed to block hits and the like? He did have **Observe** and that should help him out with predicting the Beowolves movements, right? Maybe there was a better skill for that, since **Observe** never really said anything about opponents movements. Then again, it was listed under Active Combat Skills and that meant it had an active use in combat.

He was startled out of his planning when a small chiming sound erupted from somewhere and another text box appeared to cover what he was already looking at.

 _Due to clever planning and taking advantage of your limited options, your WIS increased by 1!_

Jaune just sighed as yet another thing just piled onto his plate. Yeah, he was grateful for the stat increase but really, what was he gonna do with that extra wisdom right now? That stat generally leaned to the magic side of a game and he didn't have a spell or something to use it with. Well, there was aura but then it was a defensive thing. But hmm, some games did assign magical defense to the wisdom stat and the **Aura** skill did increase WIS. Would a higher WIS help him use aura better? Could he pull it off?

 _Due to clever planning and taking advantage of your opportunities given to you, your WIS increased by 1!_

Was this the game's way of saying that he was correct?

 _Due to understanding a concept a little bit better, your INT increased by 1!_

The game was being strangely nice with all these stat increases. Nothing good comes for free and the young blonde was dreading what was coming in the near future. It was practically a flag for a bad event.

 _Due to understanding a concept a little bit better, your INT increased by 1!_

Damn it. Will he even survive this night? Looking down at his very full chest, he doubted things would go his way when he would exit this menu and faced the Beowolves. Nothing went his way in the past few hours and a trend of picking on Jaune Arc was happening. How was he even going to dodge for his life when he had new...equipment to get used to?

He sighed for the upteenth time that night and closed the multiple alert windows that had opened in the last few minutes. He was once again starting at his Game Menu. It was best to gather as much information as he could before facing the deadly, overgrown puppies.

He opened his inventory and was greeted with a very proportionate, miniature version of himself on the left side of the screen that was very obviously female. He whimpered. He looked totally cute like all of his older sisters. He was never before this sad that the Arcs were blessed with good genes. He looked like a girl he would totally hit on. He wanted to cry. He might have already been crying.

Female Jaune Arc was very attractive. Her short hair framed her face beautifully and emphasized the cute, heart shaped face she had. Her bright, blue eyes were slightly larger than male Jaune Arc's. It gave her an innocent image that clashed with her porn star quality body. Even male Jaune's baggy clothing looked hot on her. Female Jaune's face-body dissonance had actually added to her appeal instead. He figured that this was the _gap moe_ factor that some of his more enthusiastic gamer friends talked about.

It was hard to tell her height with the miniature model but Jaune guessed his female form had the same height. He didn't really have any changes in perspective. He figured he would be tripping around lot more if he was suddenly shorter. The added weight in his chest area was troublesome enough. He was willing to acknowledge small blessings when they were given to him. He didn't know what he'd do if he suddenly found himself a whole foot shorter like that one genderbend manga that his sister recommended to him. He still couldn't understand how quickly that Ranma character could get used to not only having breasts but also a height change. Then again, it was only fiction.

Surrounding the miniature model of his current physical state were a bunch of boxes connecting to where his equipment would go with respect to his body. Certain slots were already filled by his clothes but the empty weapon slots really mocked him. He really should have brought Crocea Mors at the very least.

Most of the menu on the right side of the model, however, was occupied by many empty inventory boxes. Wanting to test something out, he bent down and took a rock from the ground next to his feet and pushed it into one of the empty slots. It worked as expected and he now had a small rock in his inventory.

 _Small Rock_

 _A totally normal, small rock. It deals a small amount of damage to an enemy when thrown._

A thought suddenly occurred to Jaune. If he could still move around while the world around him (including those godawful Grimm) were still paused, then maybe he could run away. He could run away, far away, to a place without Grimm and unpause the game! That way, he wouldn't have to deal with the Beowolves anymore and that he didn't need to die for a fifth time!

Suddenly very hopeful, Jaune turned away from Bob's ugly face and took a step forward. He promptly collided with an invisible wall and fell on his shapely, female ass. His hope died an awful, gory death when he realized he couldn't move past a few inches away from where he opened the Game Menu. He wanted to cry but he already ran out of tears to cry.

He was so done with life.

* * *

With the last two submenus Mission and Characters being empty, Jaune was left with nothing to do but to face reality. In this case, Bob and his gang of bloodthirsty demons.

"Now, how can I use this stupid game to my advantage?" the young blonde mumbled to himself.

He knew that with how weak and weaponless he was at the moment, he had no hope of facing the Beowolves head on. He knew all that he could do was to try and dodge and eventually run away. Sadly, he also knew that he was never gonna outrun them.

If his life had suddenly turned into a video game, then wouldn't that mean he could level up and earn new skills? Become stronger than he currently was? He already created one skill. Who was to say that he couldn't create more?

What he needed was a skill to help him run away. He obviously couldn't fight thirteen Beowolves in one go. Hell, he bet he couldn't even fight one of them right now. No, the best bet he had was to run away. How was he supposed to make a skill, anyway? Complete a special action? What counted as a special action?

Jaune tried pacing in the small amount of space that the pause menu had given him. If someone could see him now, it actually looked rather silly like he was spinning in place. He eventually got dizzy and plopped down on the hard floor, making his bum hurt a whole lot.

 _Due to completing a special action, a new skill has been created. You have obtained the skill_ _**Endurance**_ _._

Taking a moment to ease the pain in his abused bottom, he winced. A rock actually pierced through his pants and stabbed him, taking a small chunk of HP along with it. He took the offending rock and threw it in a fit of childish frustration. Sadly, there was that invisible barrier keeping him in place. The small rock bounced off the barrier and smacked him right in the face.

 _Critical hit!_ _ **Endurance**_ ' _s level has increased by 1!_

 _Due to completing a special action, a new skill has been created. You have obtained the skill_ _ **Throwing**_ _._

He sobbed and curled in a fetal position. His face hurt. His bum hurt. He was bleeding and sore. He was now a female. He was so done with everything.

The young Arc stayed in that position for a while, willing his aura to come to the surface and heal his pain. It had HP regen, right? It took him a while to get it right but he eventually felt a strange, warm sensation starting from the pit of his gut. It spread throughout his body and slowly numbed the pain. He sighed in relief and just flopped on the forest floor. There was barely enough space for him to spread his limbs but he didn't care. Aura was nice. Aura was heavenly. Aura was amazing.

He sat there for a while, lost in the bliss of having Aura heal his injuries. Sadly, all good things come to an end and his AP ran out, also cutting off the flow of the very delicious aura running throughout his body.

He sighed. He may be healed now but he felt extremely tired. Was this how it felt his AP ran out completely? It felt like the kind of tiredness one would experience after staying up for a few days. It was a bone deep kind of exhaustion that really brought his spirits down.

"This is insane. I feel like I got a taste of the best drug in the world and suddenly the worst crash in existence happens."

Jaune continued to stay in his fetal position and sobbed in frustration. He may have run out of tears ages ago but that didn't mean he couldn't whine like the little shit that he was. He again lost track of time, still curled up in woe at his misfortune. After an unspecified amount of time, the bone deep exhaustion was slowly leaving him and he gingerly sat up from his highly undignified position.

Looking at his still opened Game Menu showed that his AP was slowly, oh so slowly regenerating. At the rate it was going, it would take three days for him to fully refill all 10,000 points. Was there a way for him to speed up the process? He was pretty sure there would be a skill like that.

Then his brain helpfully reminded him that he had unlocked new skills. With nothing else better to do while he was still sore and lacking in AP, he decided to open his Skills submenu.

 _ **Endurance**_ _(Lv. 2)_

 _A skill that reduces physical damage taken by 10% and increases in level every time you get hit. Higher levels in this skill also grant an increase in DEF. Exp. 10%_

This skill wasn't so bad. If he could take a little more damage, then he might actually survive this encounter after all! But then at Lv. 1, it didn't really protect him from damage much. He needed to grind the skill for it to be more effective. How the hell was he going to grind that skill when he could barely move from this spot?

Better yet, how could he create a running away skill while stuck in such a small space?

Sighing, he decided to read up on the other skill in the list.

 _ **Throwing**_ _(Lv. 1)_

 _Your ability to throw things around. Higher levels in this skill raise damage dealt when throwing items. Depending on the item thrown, different effects can be achieved. Higher levels in this skill also raise STR. Exp. 2%_

This was a strange skill. It was useful, he supposed, but he didn't really see how it was a Support skill. It felt more like a Combat skill with the description, but then again, this whole game was making no sense to him.

He sighed for the upteenth time that night. He closed the Skills submenu and kept the main Game Menu opened lest the suspended Bob would crash into him and kill him for the...fifth time that night.

Jaune lied down, the menu helpfully and following his field of vision. Through the translucent screen, he could see Bob's jaws wide open, full of sharp and bloody teeth. A sliver of saliva was dropping down from its canines and the young man could just imagine the slimy feeling of its jaws sinking into his skin.

He was tired and he had no idea what to do about the situation he was in. Every breath he took reminded him of the extra weight of his new gender. Every time he opened his eyes, he saw the strangely glowing screens reminding him that he had died and things were no longer normal. Hell, nothing about suspended Beowolves was normal at all.

How was he going to survive this night? How was he going to escape this situation? He was totally lost and he had no idea what he was going to do.

He wanted his mother's hugs. He wanted his father's reassuring laugh as he patted his shoulder. He wanted Viola's cold but caring logic to tell him what to do. Hell, even Menthe's bad jokes would be appreciated right now.

Jaune Arc was so done.

* * *

 **AN:**

And that's a wrap! I know that there's a whole ton of The Gamer stories but I really wanted to try my hand at it. As the title suggests, this game has quite a few errors in its system, so numbers and classifications may not make sense. This is purely intentional, of course, and totally not because I don't want to bother thinking about keeping number-consistency.

This is mainly a stress-relieving writing exercise for me, so updates may be rather sporadic. I didn't have a plan then but I have a vague idea now. Maybe. Also, I learned my lesson and I can't consistently write as long as this introductory chapter. I'll do my best, but I think I'll cap out at around 5K words per chapter after this.

Will there be ships in this fic? Perhaps not. I know how intense RWBY shipping can get, but I think this fic won't really have romance. Jaune is currently physically female even if he identifies as a straight man, so it might be difficult for him to have a romance. There might be crack shipping in the future, maybe, I dunno. I've been entertaining the thought of a JaunexRenxNora threesome but I don't really know. What are you thoughts?

I think this is it for now? Leave a comment if you found this interesting enough. I try my best to reply to all the reviews when I can.


	2. The Grind

**Chapter Title:** The Grind

 **Chapter Length:** 4, 585 words

 **First Published:** 05 May 2018

* * *

Jaune took a fortifying breath and let it out all nice and slow.

"Okay, this is it, Jaune Arc. You can do this. You can _do this!_ "

The currently female blonde closed his Game Menu and rolled under a swipe from Bob the Beowolf. Once upon a time, the twigs and rocks on the forest floor would have hurt him, but after so many deaths and a Lv. 30 **Endurance** skill, he barely felt a sting from nature poking him in uncomfortable places.

He heard snarling to his left and he jumped away in time, Ashley the Beowolf's ugly face meeting the hard packed ground. The innocent pile of leaves on the floor, who were just minding their own business thank you very much, were disturbed, scattered, and sent flying at the unfortunate Beowolf's assault.

Behind him, Jaune could hear the distinct sounds of Jim's paws smacking the dirt. That particular Grimm had one leg scarred from prior encounters from other Hunters before meeting the blonde, and the young scion was very intimately familiar with the uneven steps of that particular Beowolf. He had died enough times because of this particular bastard.

Ducking under Jim's lunge, Jaune took a rock from the ground and threw it at Jim's exposed back. With a Lv. 18 **Throwing** skill, the simple rock dealt a good deal of damage and even added a Stunned status effect to the scarred Grimm.

Before he could appreciate his good hit, another Beowolf leapt at him, claws sharp and ready to gouge out his insides. The young Arc took a fortifying breath, steadied his stance, and took the deranged wolf head on. With hands open and ready, he clumsily deflected John's swipe and took hold of the Grimm's front limbs. With a mighty heave that took full advantage of his meager Strength stat, he threw John at an incoming Britney. The two wolves smacked into each other rather painfully and they both dissolved into dust and black ichor.

He found out early on that his **Throwing** skill was useful after all. Depending on the thing he'd throw, varying amounts of damage and effects would befall upon the target. At Lv. 18, a simple rock dealt 300-350 damage and some possibility of stunning the target temporarily. At his current skill level, a 100 kg Beowolf dealt 1,000 damage and had an 80% chance of causing paralysis. It was even more convenient in that it hurt both the Beowolf being thrown and the one he'd been aiming at. It was the best ammo he had in this forest which he accidentally discovered when he threw Ashley at Jim a few lives ago.

Jaune easily ignored the annoying screen signifying that he had leveled up. He was too busy dodging more attacks and barely escaping deadly claws to pay attention to the cheerfully inappropriate jingle that came with leveling up. Bob's barking commands echoed throughout the small clearing, mixing with his undignified grunts and the growls of the dark creatures.

Not waiting for the outcome of whatever coordinated attack the damn demons had planned, Jaune started sprinting the hell out of the clearing. Even after so many resets, he knew he was still weak and that he couldn't take on all of the pack alone and weaponless. He had tried that in this twelfth reset. It just ended with him painfully breaking his bones against a tough tree and having his legs eaten. He won't ever forget the pain of those jaws sinking into his flesh and tearing skin and muscles apart.

Again, he ignored another alert window announcing that his **Running** skill had reached Lv. 24 and just continued running like his life depended on it. Which it did, really, even if he never truly stayed dead. He needed to get out of the forest before those things caught up to him and brought upon more pain on his person. He could hear their howls and thundering steps getting closer and closer, the staccato of their strides matched eerily well with his erratic heartbeat. He felt like he would die from the nerves alone.

He ran as hard as he could, jumping over fallen trees and large rocks along the way. He felt like an unfortunate arcade game character, jumping around obstacles as monsters chased after him. Now if only there were convenient floating power-ups he could catch every now and then. Sadly, it seemed that the game his life had become was strictly of the role-playing variety.

He could hear the Grimm catching up to him and he knew that he'd be outpaced soon enough. Tearing up at the exertion of his frantic running, the young man-woman decided it was about time to use his **Aura**. Activating the skill, he felt the warmth rush from his navel to his limbs, making him feel much lighter and helping him breathe easier.

The howling, growling menaces chasing after him were gaining ground and Jaune was desperately pushing his legs to their limits.

 _He was so close!_

He could practically see the great walls surrounding the City of Vale. He could barely make out the guards on duty standing at attention, their weapons ready for any emergency.

He was about to scream for help, manly pride be damned. He was desperate and needed help badly; he could care less what they thought of him and his shrill shrieking. He opened his mouth and willed his exhausted lungs to expel air for a _scream-_

But, ultimately, his Luck failed him and he tripped over a rock. He stumbled and rolled, allowing the pack of rabid Beowolves to descend upon his poor, sprawled form.

* * *

 _Game Over_

 _You have died. Do you want to..._

 _Load from save file?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

 _Restart from beginning?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

Jaune sighed and gracelessly flopped on what passed as the floor in the empty expanse of space. He could almost ignore having a full and curvaceous bottom with how long he had been in this new body. He had also gotten used to dying painfully by Beowolf mauling, as morbid as that was. He had lost track of the many variations of bite marks, chunks of meat and flesh missing, and the amount of broken bones he had acquired over the many resets. He had even gotten used to the unwelcome sight of seeing his gory, bloody mess of a body each time he ended up in this space-not-space.

Things really weren't going his way.

"And I was doing so well too. Ugh, it feels like whenever I play Water Emblem and my units die to a critical hit and I'm forced to reset the damn map for the gazillionth time when I was _this_ close to finishing the fucking chapter," a frustrated huff escaped his cherry lips. A beat later, his pretty face then grimaced. "Except the anger and frustration are multiplied by a thousand. Oh, let's not forget the copious amount of limb-tearing, bone-breaking, organ-crushing fear that makes this gaming experience truly a worthwhile buy!"

His caustic sarcasm turned into a hysteric screech by the end of that rant. His voice cracked and he sobbed a pitiful sob, curling into a ball that gave him little comfort. Ugly sobs crawled out of his throat, occasionally choking him with the intense melancholy he felt. He was so done with dying. If he remembered his death count properly, this was his 46th death since the whole mess started. He had come to a point where he just wanted to _stop_ and he would do anything for that to happen. He'd do fucking anything just to stop this cycle and get either get back to what was familiar or actually dying for good.

Gritting his teeth in even more frustration at this torture, the pretty blonde angrily tapped the load option and prepared himself for another round.

Sometime around the 30th reset, he had given up and spent a few days in the void after another painful death. Spirit drained, he laid down in the emptiness, waiting for true death to come and claim him. However, he never felt hunger or sleepiness in the void, his body was literally suspended in time. He eventually got sick of that stillness and resumed another round of the game that was his life.

If the fucking game won't let him quit, then he'd channel all the fear and sadness into productive anger and hope for the best. That was all he could do now.

* * *

Jaune knew after so many repeats that the pack of Beowolves would appear in the clearing 3.78 seconds after he had materialized again. His 47th life started with a shower of pixels in a wide array of colors that was honestly quite pretty, if it didn't remind him how unnatural everything was recently.

He quickly opened his Game Menu in hopes of thinking up a new strategy and giving himself as much time as he could. His last few attempts of escaping the hell have been getting closer and closer to success. He was sure he only needed to tweak some finer details and he'd finally be within the city's safe walls and away from death-bringing Grimm. He wouldn't stop until he got home and was in his family's safe arms. He kinda missed his mother's hugs, not that he'd ever admit that to her.

 _ **[Profile]**_

 _Name: Jaune Arc_

 _Race: Human_

 _Title: Arc Scion_

 _Level: 1_

 _HP: 100/100_

 _AP: 10,000/10,000_

 _ATK: 5 (+35)_

 _DEF: 5 (+45)_

 _VIT: 3 (+32)_

 _STR: 3 (+29)_

 _INT: 1 (+23)_

 _WIS: 1 (+18)_

 _LUK: ?_

Early on in his many resets, Jaune found out that any level-ups he had achieved and the stat points that went with it reset back and did not carry over to his new life. He essentially always started as a Lv. 1 character. He didn't know if it was because of a glitch in the system or if the game really just wanted to screw him over, but every time he failed, he always went back to his initial state level-wise. Even those giveaway INT and WIS stats he had received when he was still figuring out the game went away when he died and had another reset.

There was a silver lining to this mess, however. Any level-ups he gained in any of his skills were retained, along with the stat bonuses that they gave him. Even if he was a weak, limp noodle of a character, his skills gave him an edge in battle. He was thankful for that, else he would really be stuck in this hell of a forest without any way of getting out. The eternal loop of death and reset would drive him mad, he felt, if he never made progress.

Opening his Skills window, he decided to check any changes that happened in the recent mess of a battle. Maybe he earned a new skill while he was too busy dodging for his life.

 _ **[Skills]**_

 _ **Combat Skills**_

 _Active Skills_

 _\- Observe (Lv. 10)_

 _\- Aura (Lv. 22)_

 _Passive Skills_

 _\- Endurance (Lv. 33)_

 _ **Support Skills**_

 _Active Skills_

 _\- Throwing (Lv. 19)_

 _\- Meditation (Lv. 31)_

 _Passive Skills_

 _None_

 _ **Life Skills**_

 _Active Skills_

 _\- Running (Lv. 24)_

 _ **Crafting Skills**_

 _None_

Everything was as it was previously, with no new skills gained in this round. He didn't gain all that many skill levels in his last life, but he now had a clearer idea on how to defeat enough Beowolves to clear the path for him to run away.

"My **Throwing** skill is definitely my best bet. Increasing my **Running** and **Endurance** skills would also help out. I can use Battle Strategy No. 25 for this round," he said to himself, nodding a bit as if agreeing to someone else's suggestion. With him being alone for quite some time, hearing a voice, even if it was his own feminine trill, gave him a sense of companionship.

He had tried to actively unlock new skills during his infinite time with the paused Game Menu a few iterations back, but with the limited space he had and the small number of items he could interact with, he couldn't really trigger any new status windows that announced a new skill being unlocked. Theoretically, he could unlock more if he tried out new and different things, but that was almost impossible at the moment.

Nodding resolutely to himself, this time more for psyching himself up, he stretched his limbs a bit and went about doing what every RPG player hated doing-a necessary evil, if you will.

Grinding.

With practiced motions, Jaune picked up a medium-sized rock and threw it in a random direction. The invisible wall that signified the end of his small bubble of space-time prevented the rock's flight forward and sent it back to the blonde with vengeance. With a resigned gritting of his teeth, he took the "attack" head-on.

"AAAAAUUUUUGGGGHHHHH!"

With a pitiful, heart-wrenching scream, young Jaune Arc crumpled to the floor in a sobbing, painful mess. That medium-sized rock should have only dealt a reasonable amount of damage, but with his shitty Luck, it mercilessly hit him in his left eye and landed a very damaging critical hit.

With barely a sliver of HP left from the critical hit, Jaune shakily sat up. Tears flowed down his face and his bloody left eye was squeezed shut from the injury. Since he didn't have his **Aura** skill activated, then intending on training his **Endurance** skill, he received the full amount of physical damage that had surely blinded him.

 _Critical hit!_ _ **Endurance**_ _has reached Lv. 34!_

Those words barely gave him comfort through the agony. With all the self-control he could muster, he willed his aura to come to the surface, activating the advanced healing rate that it gave him. He sat in the empty clearing, letting his aura flow according to his breathing patterns.

He had accidentally unlocked the **Meditation** skill during his 17th reset when he had a small breakdown and tried to calm himself down. It had since then come in handy during grinding. This skill's main purpose was to increase the regen rate by almost 150% at his current skill level. It was strange in that it used up either AP or HP depending on which regen rate you wanted to increase. If you wanted to increase HP regen for instance, the AP bar would be the one used up and vice versa. As useful as it was, sadly, it could only be used while staying still. He couldn't see any applications in battle at the moment.

Jaune was bathed in an ethereal white glow, his aura being consumed to heal his wounds. It was a strange feeling, like the burning in his eye slowly turned into "ants under your skin" kind of feeling. It was highly uncomfortable but he could tell that the wounds were healing. It took a while, with a lot of breaks in between while he waited for his aura to naturally regenerate when it ran out, until he completely healed his eye.

He blinked a bit to get rid of the dark spots in his vision. Once his body went back to normal functioning, he let out a rather long sigh before he resumed his grinding. This little accident had increased his **Meditation** skill to Lv. 32.

This continued until he reached Lv. 40 in all the relevant stats. He estimated that he spent roughly three weeks of time, if it was running normally, just doing the same thing over and over and over again. It was maddening but it was better than dying again. Jaune knew that his stress levels were an all time high and multiple times during the grinding period, he actually felt like killing himself. Sadly, he knew that would be pointless and he would find himself in that space-not-space again.

Besides, he had family to come home to. His mother's hugs would make him feel a hundred thousand percent better.

Once again, Jaune Arc took a steadying breath and decided to face the music. He could never be truly ready to face the pack of wolves, but he was sick of grinding and just wanted to leave the accursed forest.

* * *

Jaune desperately pumped aura through his system, running as fast as he could as the lone Beowolf Bob chased after him.

He lucked out in this run and managed to do three critical hits that lead to KOs. Three Beowolves immediately died and the other three he had thrown at them suffered badly enough that they were in the red just moments after the fight started. They were quickly disposed of with a bunch of well thrown small rocks.

The other six Beowolves suffered slowly before dying, as Jaune somewhat perfected his hit-and-run tactic against the rabid wolves. It took a while and a lot of close calls, but our young hero-turned-heroine persevered and was somehow able to get rid of them. He honestly lost track of how the battle progressed, entirely too focused on keeping himself alive. All he knew was that it involved a lot of screaming from him and even more near-misses that gave him multiple heart attacks throughout the whole thing.

Now he just had to outrun Bob.

The gates were nowhere in sight and he was hopelessly lost. He was sure he was running in the same general area he had been aiming for in the past few runs, but perhaps the recent tussle had messed with his sense of direction. He prayed to any high being out there who was willing to listen to his pleas to send him some kind of break. He prayed and begged and sobbed and hoped with all his heart that he could find something, anything to run to now that he was lost as fuck.

He just wanted out.

Bob's snarling was getting louder and louder. At the rate he was going, if nothing changed soon, the much stronger demon would catch up to him, ready to maul him into teeny, tiny bits. Jaune pushed his legs to the limit and beyond, and jumped over a fallen tree trunk that was in the way. He barely scraped by, tumbling into the dirt on the other side. He tasted dirt for a moment and he almost choked on the awful taste.

Wasting no time, he spat the unnamable substance in his mouth and quickly scrambled up and away from the death-on-legs that was steadily approaching. He was graceless, looking quite like an unfortunate drunk trying to do cartwheels on a slippery floor, but he somehow managed to slither away.

He was starting to get hopeful. He was finally getting away-!

Then his Luck stat triggered again and he fell into pitfall. Really, at this point, it was getting old and Jaune was ready to file a complaint to the directors.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuucccckkkk!" he squealed as he fell, his voice getting fainter and fainter as the darkness of the hole enveloped his smaller form.

* * *

 _You have entered a dungeon!_

 _Auto-saving…_

 _Congratulations! The game has been saved._

Jaune Arc, disoriented and very much sore from his fall, took a while to understand the words floating in front of his face. Apparently, his **Endurance** skill was still not high enough to protect him from the however-many-feet fall he just had. Once he did gather his bearings enough to understand the letters written, he didn't know whether to feel relieved that he got away from the Beowolves or feel worried that he entered a potentially even more dangerous place.

"Well, at least the game saved. Maybe I don't have to go back to those wolves when I die!" he tried to cheer himself up. "Maybe things are finally looking up!"

As if to spite him, an ominous screeching sound echoed from deeper within the so-called dungeon.

"Nope. Nope. No way in hell am I going in there," his face turned three shades paler. "I need to get out of here and get back to Vale. Vale is the only safe place in this gods-forsaken world."

And as if to hammer home how much he has been abandoned by the higher beings, he couldn't find a way out of the dark hole he fell into. The only other exit was way up above him and his poor attempts at climbing ( _Due to completing a special action, a new skill has been created. You have obtained the skill_ _**Climbing**_ ) yielded only pain, suffering, and a few, measly points.

He was stubborn thing and he seriously didn't want to go into the dungeon. It was better to go back to a known threat than to explore the unknown threats that lay within. He continued to climb the wall, sometimes falling to his death and restarting again in the dark expanse of the hole he fell into. He climbed and climbed until he hit yet another one of those blasted invisible walls. In his frustrated anger, he punched the offending barrier, but that too led to his death. He lost his precarious grip on the rocky surface and fell with a sickening thud.

Tired and absolutely done with his life, Jaune decided (was forced) to forge on into the darkness.

"Better than just rotting in here," he bitterly mumbled. "Why the hell has my life gone to shit?"

Taking a fortifying breath that should have filled him with a bit of confidence but only gave him more dread and a terrible feeling in his lungs, he ventured into the dark unknown hoping for the best. His dad always said that all one needed was confidence.

A tiny, traitorous voice in his head, suspiciously sounding like his sister Viola, told him that horrible things were to come and that hoping was a futile endeavor. He viscously squashed that voice. He seriously didn't need to add "hearing voices" to the ever-growing list of symptoms of his madness. This messed up video game reality was enough.

* * *

A few minutes had passed since he left the previous chamber and so far, things were running smoothly. The underground tunnel he was walking through was dark and hard to navigate, but he somehow managed by taking small steps and sticking to one side of the wall. He didn't know what he was stepping on or what the slightly slimy substance was on the walls, and he felt better when he didn't think about it.

The air was stale and slightly moldy, filled with a kind of heaviness one associated with suspense or horror films. He knew he shouldn't think about it, but he really couldn't help but worry that something would just appear from the darkness to eat him. Viola's cold, and a little bit smug voice taunted him from inside his head, and as much as he loved his many sisters, he wanted to punch the owner of that voice. The phantom inside him was driving him mad.

He really did not need his mind betraying him right now. Or ever, really.

Maybe he should think of happier thoughts. Like that time Menthe made him a really amazing apple pie. Or that time Cannelle and Chocolat made those super cool gun-swords that exploded multi-colored dust particles. If he recalled correctly, that specific entry won the annual Hunter Weapons Design Contest of Vale. HWDCV was a mouthful to say so most just called it The Death Battle, as quite a lot of contestants felt that the best way to showcase their cool weapon designs was to use it against the opponents'. It was a more chaotic Vytal Festival tournament that was held in Vale annually, except on the years that Vale was the host of the actual Vytal Festival.

It said quite a lot about the blood-thirstiness of the Valean citizens if they'd hold tournaments as often as they could.

While he fantasized about the Really Cool Weapons from his sisters' shop, he tripped over a trunk that was suddenly in the way. He fell face first, like he usually did for some reason, and was yet again acquainted with the taste of dirt and other substances. At the rate he was going, he would be a connoisseur of dirt samples from all over Remnant.

Groaning pitifully, though more in embarrassment than in pain, Jaune finally paid attention to the trunk that he tripped over.

"Is this a treasure chest?" he asked, bewildered and incredulous. Yes, he entered a dungeon but should there really be a chest of what might be treasure just lying about? Did his reality really warp that badly that the world's laws were being bent backwards and forwards like a particularly pliant play-dough?

Not that he cared to think too much. That avenue just lead to many headaches and quite a few nosebleeds from overthinking. Instead, he gleefully pounced on the thing and quickly opened it. Maybe this was his lucky break! Maybe there was an Escape Rope inside?!

When he opened the chest, a rather loud, triumphant jingle echoed through the empty tunnel. It hurt his ears and left him stunned for a few moments. He wondered if other video game protagonists also felt the reverberations of in-game sound effects as strongly as he did.

Then again, knowing his luck, he wouldn't be surprised if he was the only one who felt sound effects this badly.

Once he recovered well enough (he hoped his eardrums were still intact), he gingerly peeked inside the glowing trunk, his earlier enthusiasm gone, as if taking a critical hit from the victory jingle.

Inside the chest was a simple pair of gloves. It was made of brown leather and didn't look particularly well made. Honestly, it looked a bit dirty and worn, and looked out of place sitting inside such a beautiful chest. Using **Observe** , he found out more about the seemingly innocent gloves.

 _Old Leather Gloves (Lv. 1)_

 _These are a well-worn pair of gloves. It may be old, but it sure is warm!_

 _Equipping this gives the user +5 ATK._

"Huh. So they really are just gloves," Jaune mused as he removed the old gloves and tried to put them on. He was stopped, however, by the inventory screen suddenly popping in front of his face.

"Oh come on! Really?" he complained, annoyed at the assertive floating box that wouldn't go away even if he tried to close it. "Don't tell me I have to see this screen every time I change!"

That seemed like a likely reality, however, as the screen refused to budge.

"Fine then! Ugh!" he complained, frustration straining his voice. He jabbed the pair of gloves into the uncooperative inventory screen and watched it dissolve into colorful pixels. He knew he was being petulant, fighting against an inventory screen of all things, but he wanted an inkling of control in his life, damn it! He didn't want to rely on the damn thing.

Barely a moment later, another alert screen popped up over the inventory screen.

 _Would you like to equip [Old Leather Gloves] as an Accessory or as a Weapon?_

 _[Yes] [No]_

"What," he croaked. The question was reasonable enough, though we was surprised that gloves could be a weapon. Then again, maybe that was for hand-to-hand combat. Some games he played did have Fist-type weapons, so he understood the prompt.

No, it was the given options that made no sense.

"What do you want me to do?" he sobbed. Just as one good thing seemed to have happened, another inconvenience got piled on, and he remained unhappy.

Such was his life.

* * *

 **AN:**

And that's the end of chapter two! I think this is a more comfortable length for me, and maybe I can update more frequently. Maybe. Who knows. I'm kind of excited to write about his dungeon shenanigans hehehe.

Ah, btw, I don't really have a beta reader, so if you're interested in helping out, you can leave me a PM. I'm anal about editing but I'm also blind, so I bet I missed something along the way. I edit my chapters when they need editing, so don't hesitate to point out something amiss in the reviews. It would totally help out a lot.


End file.
